Everton boss David Moyes has confirmed that Senegalese midfielder Idrissa Gueye is ruled out of Sunday’s Premier League clash against Everton.
The 36-year-old has already missed the Toffees’ last two matches and will not be available for the meeting with the Black Cats at Hill Dickinson Stadium on 17 May.
Although Gueye has now returned to training, Moyes confirmed that the fixture comes too soon for the midfielder to make his comeback for the Blues.
Everton will conclude their league campaign against Tottenham Hotspur, and it is believed that the 36-year-old has a slim chance of making the trip to North London on 24 May.
Having heavily relied on Gueye as his midfield anchor, Moyes is expected to utilise Tim Iroegbunam once again in his absence.
Speaking in his pre-Sunderland press conference, Moyes said, ‘No, Idrissa [Gueye] isn’t fit for the game. And obviously, Braithwaite is out as well. [Gueye] is back on the grass; he’s just not available for this game.
There’s an outside chance that he could make Tottenham. So we’ll see how that goes.’
Blow
Everton are currently enduring a five-match winless spell, which has significantly harmed their hopes of securing European qualification ahead of Sunday’s final home game of the campaign against Sunderland. It also marks their longest stretch without a victory this season.
The two sides are separated by just one point and one position in the table, sitting comfortably away from both the relegation battle and the race for Europe. Even so, the campaign remains important for Sunderland, whose first season back in the Premier League has been highly impressive, with a 12th-place finish and 48 points representing a notable achievement for a promoted team.
Everton’s recent fixtures have also become unusually open, with at least three goals scored in each of their previous six matches and 20 goals in total across their last five outings.
The Toffees have conceded at least twice in every game during their current five-match winless sequence. In contrast, Sunderland have established themselves as one of the stronger defensive sides in the division, with the most clean sheets.
Sunderland have lost their final away league fixture in six of the past nine seasons, although they won the other three consecutively between 2020–21 and 2022–23. Everton, meanwhile, have won each of their last five final home league games since their 3-1 defeat to Bournemouth at the end of the 2019–20 campaign.
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